Abrugena leaves for NCRPO, cherishes time in Cebu

Police Colonel Manuel Abrugena / CDN File Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police Colonel Manuel Abrugena will already return to the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO), his mother unit, starting on Monday to prepare for his reassignment to another police unit.

He will be replaced by Police Colonel Roderick Mariano, who will also come from NCRPO.

While he looks forward to his return back home, Abrugena said that he will surely miss Cebu that has become his second home since his reassigned at the Cebu Police Provincial Office (CPPO) on May 2018.

Before he leaves Cebu, Abrugena said he plans to visit Oslob town to go whaleshark watching and enjoy the waters of Badian town with his family.

Abrugena received his relief order from Camp Crame on Wednesday, June 17.

Just like his re-assignment to Cebu, the order for his return to NCRPO also came as a surprise.

“(But) it’s okay. That’s our job here in the PNP. We will always keep moving. I am not surprised, this always happen to us,” he said in Tagalog.

However, Abrugena said that he is still uncertain what his next assignment will be at NCRPO.

Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said police officers holding the rank of Colonel like Abrugena will already have to start their training for their promotion to General.

Sinas wished the outgoing CPPO director goodluck as he prepares for new challenges.

Abrugena considers his more than a year’s stay in Cebu as challenging and fulfilling.  He took pride in the intensive anti-illegal drugs campaign which he implemented in Talisay City where he ordered the relief of city police and had them replaced with personnel from the Regional Mobile Force Battalion in Central Visayas (RMFB-7).

He said that he worked hard to make sure that he is able to fulfill the mandate mandate of President Rodrigo Duterte for the implementation of an all out war against illegal drugs.

For Sinas, Abrugena’s biggest accomplishment was to ensure peace and order in five municipalities including San Fernando town that were placed under the Election Watchlist Areas (Ewas) in the May 13 midterm polls. This proved his competence as CPPO director.

Still, Abrugena said that he has unfinished programs for CPPO which included his plan to further strengthen the police office’s internal cleansing.

He is hopeful that Mariano will fulfill the task for him.

Meanwhile, Abrugena is also calling on all CPPO personnel and station commanders to support Mariano, who is scheduled to formally assume the office of the CPPO director starting on June 25. /dcb